The 45,000 or so unionized Verizon workers who have been on strike since August 7 will go back to work on Tuesday under an extension to their existing contract, while negotiators for both sides are still trying to agree on a new and not necessarily improved contract.

Verizon's been pushing for an agreement that would require employees to pay $100 or more for their health care premiums, freeze pensions, and do other things that the Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers—the two unions representing the workers—find distasteful, especially given that the top five Verizon executives have made a combined $258 million in the past four profitable years. But it sounds like management may be backing off a bit, at least on procedural matters: The New York Timesreports that the unions agreed to call off their strike after management "had finally agreed to engage in serious bargaining on the contentious issues."

Nobody seems to be talking about how we wouldn't even need unions or have strikes if we just outsourced all our labor to other countries.